COVER STORY, FEBRUARY 2011

SOUTH FLORIDA HEATS UP WITH TWO BLOCKBUSTER DEALS
Coleman Wood

News reports have been down on the South Florida real estate market for a while. The start of 2011 may be signaling a turn of the corner for the market, though. One of the city’s iconic office towers and a Class A mixed-use property have traded to institutional investors in two deals valued at $197.75 million.

One of the iconic features of Miami Tower is its exterior lights, which change colors.

At the end of December, I&G Miami Inc. acquired the iconic Miami Tower from an affiliate of Atlanta-based Wealth Capital Investments for $105.5 million, a deal that was touted as one of the largest real estate transactions to occur in the city in 2010. Designed by I.M. Pei and constructed in 1987, Miami Tower contains 600,000 square feet of Class A office space. Occupancy was 80 percent at the time of closing, and tenants at the building include UBS Financial Services, Vector Group and several law firms.

The building contains a host of amenities that include a sky lobby and terrace on the 11th floor, three restaurants, a health club, a 150-seat auditorium, a florist and a hair salon. The building contains 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that is tenanted by the café Au Bon Pain, U.S. Century Bank and a dry cleaners. Miami Tower also contains a dedicated Metro Rail station and is connected to the Miami Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency Miami.

The seller, Blue Capital US East Coast Properties LP, recently completed a $2 million capital improvements program to the building. Part of the renovations focused on increasing the energy efficiency of the building.

The Holliday Fenoglio Fowler team of Manny de Zarraga and Hermen Rodriguez represented the seller in the deal.

Ross Dress for Less is one of the anchors of London Square.

In addition, London Square, a 299,103-square-foot mixed-use property located at the intersection of 137th Avenue and 120th Street, traded in a $95.25 million deal. The buyer was RREEF, acting on behalf of a foreign client. The seller was an affiliate of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Woolbright Development. The deal was brokered by the National Retail Investment Group Florida Team at CB Richard Ellis.

London Square consists of a 238,438-square-foot retail center and a 60,665-square-foot office building. The property is currently 99 percent leased by a tenant roster that includes Dollar Tree, Miami Children’s Hospital, Party City, Ross Dress for Less, Sergio’s, Starbucks and Tj Maxx/Homegoods. London Square also contains a 150,535-square-foot Costco that was not included in the sale.

“The London Square sale is the largest transaction involving an open-air shopping center in Florida since 2008,” said Casey Rose, senior vice president for CB Richard Ellis, in a statement. “The buyer was interested in a stable, core-quality investment involving excellent real estate and London Square met that criteria. More broadly, the transaction solidly confirms that institutional capital has regained enough confidence in the market to make a major investment in Florida retail property.”

©2011 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.